Work on their personal projects
Twilight had her own ideas about what the crew of the Equinox ought to be doing. But ultimately, the decision not to micromanage her ponies was a simple one. It wasn’t just that she couldn’t possibly know as much about their own disciplines as they did—though that was certainly part of it. Far more than that, she just didn’t have the energy to ride them all.
It was a long trip, enough time for much to be accomplished. Much more than last time, given they no longer had a stowaway gradually burning through resources and setting them up for several kinds of failure.
Twilight had no time for her own pursuits—there were a dozen little fires to put out, and she was usually the pony to do it. The Equispike still had dozens of broken systems that needed fixing, distributed damage from Cozy Glow’s explosives. True, the ship was still structurally sound. But every little bit of damage or broken system was a little of their beach washed out to sea.
When Twilight wasn’t fixing other ponies’ problems, she found what time she could to talk to Node. But where she had once been obtuse and reticent with everything she said, now the “pony” was frighteningly direct, uncaring, almost cruel.
Twilight had no idea whether she should believe anything that Node told her. But she spoke in Starlight Glimmer’s voice, with such absolute certainty that it was hard not to believe what she said.
She spoke of a race as ancient as time itself, a race so well-traveled that the location of their original homeworld was lost to time. They had an infinity of different branches, spreading away through the universe from the location where Hunger had first appeared.
Once they had been young and clever, inventing incredible things that their ancestors never would’ve believed. But with every new failure, their hope faded.
“And all these creatures… where are they now?” Twilight asked.
“The Flotilla,” Node said. “Our ancient ancestors are, anyway. An intergalactic fleet… of a size and scale your mind cannot comprehend. My people, and your creators, left from that fleet because they thought they could succeed where others had failed.”
“You say things like that,” Twilight said, pacing around the workshop. This was where Spike had worked to build Node, with the strange fabrication hardware that they’d been sent. All that machinery was still here, much enhanced by Node herself. “But I don’t think that’s true. What does it even mean to be too advanced for me to understand? Ponies are interstellar creatures too.”
“Okay,” Node looked up from her work. She was doing something with glass, overlaying thin layers together around a thin organic film. There looked to be a grid of wires printed onto the glass, little coper lines so fine she could barely see them.
“The Flotilla’s core is composed of a number of Shkadov thrusters, constructed using a hyperstable class of Red Dwarf star. They have sailed for billions of years, and will sail for trillions more. Starlifting engines draw necessary matter from within each star, supplying numberless trillions of individuals with what they need to continue functioning.”
“Shkadov thruster?”
Node rolled her eyes, looking back to her work. “We use the sum of the star’s own output to push that star. Perfectly balance a swarm of mirrors against photonic pressure, with an opening opposite where you want to go.”
Twilight tried to imagine that—whole stars turned into engines? Equestria had a nonzero amount of experience with manipulating large objects. Celestia and Luna did, anyway. Maybe they would fit in with this Flotilla better than Node suggested. “And why didn’t you go off to join them yourself?”
Node’s plastic ears fell limp. “Shame. We were… the boldest, cleverest, and loudest engineers. Proximus C was a laboratory outperforming your entire civilization every few minutes. When we left, we swore we already had a solution. Beyond that—none of us is the only instance of us. I’m a copy of a copy of a… I don’t know how many of me there are. The Flotilla doesn’t need me back. The one it has isn’t a failure.”
Twilight settled one wing on her shoulder. “The Flotilla is lucky to have you, but so are we. I’m glad for what you do for my crew.” She left Node to her own devices after that—though from the number of fabricators going around her, she suspected that Spike had just as much of a hoof in whatever was going on there.
Node achieves 80% progress on her unknown project during the first half of the voyage.
Twilight checked in on each of her crewmen whenever she could. The others didn’t have the secrets of the universe to share with her, but they still needed to know that their work was appreciated, and they had her listening ear if they needed it.
Rarity makes 60% progress.
Applejack makes 70% progress on repairs.
Rainbow makes 80% progress with weapon modifications.
Apple Bloom and Sunset make 80% progress on an unknown project.
She spent more time providing moral support for Rarity than for any other pony, who seemed to be struggling with her theoretical defense system.
“I don’t understand why this is giving me so much trouble!” she exclaimed, slamming another broken thaumic crystal into the disposal chute. Servos hummed, and the scrap slid away down the tube.
It was the second crystal she’d burned out during their conversation.
“That’s what comes from pushing boundaries,” Twilight said wistfully. “Everything we do is outside the familiar.”
“Not that far outside,” Rarity muttered. “Shields are common. How hard can it be to get one to trigger on command?”
Impossible, so far. Canterlot station had shields, and ultimately at the center of that infrastructure was a crew of dozens of unicorns. Only one was required, but many times more than that were always there, their powers amplified. But never missing.
“Maybe you’re going about it the wrong way,” Twilight muttered. “Maybe instead of trying to surpass Canterlot, we should just try to equal them. We have three ponies who can manage that spell.”
Rarity grumbled, then shook her head. “We don’t have the power. Only the engines are rated for that kind of output. Retrofitting somewhere else to take that much from the reactor just isn’t something we can manage with our crew. But with Node’s new computers, we would only need the shield for microseconds. Just long enough to intercept a projectile, or disassociate a magical attack. You’re smart, Twilight, but your brain just isn’t that fast.”
She pointed to one corner of the workshop, where the ship fabricator had printed the rest of her shield. Massive capacitors rang the outside, with a single conspicuous hole in the center. “Our existing computers are fast, but they aren’t smart enough to recognize danger when they see it. But Node has this new kind of AI… models you can teach, that get better and better the more they do something. That’s what runs this shield.”
“And your design is going to… trickle-charge these capacitors, using the existing wiring,” Twilight guessed. “And then turn on just when we’re getting shot at.”
“It does seem frighteningly likely,” Rarity said. “It’s the only disaster we haven’t faced yet.”
For an expert in fashion, you have low imagination for disasters.
But eventually their remote probe arrived, sending back its first grainy photos of Proximus C.
Everypony gathered to see what it would show, packed into the bridge where they had the biggest screens. Even still, the black and white surfaces did a pale job at communicating the incredible scale and majesty of the gas giant. Twilight had never seen images from so close to one.
“Captain,” Spike’s voice said, making her finally look up from the images. “We’re dealing with significant light lag to the probe. We have to send our command in the next minute, or it will default to its preprogrammed course.”
Twilight tried to remember exactly what the default might be—but that slipped her mind. It had been over a month now, and she had so much to remember… “What do you mean?”
Node made a convincing throat-clearing sound from beside Twilight. “The atmosphere is scattering our sensors. See there, that thing looks like metal. The probe thinks there might be a gigantic structure under there. Looks like…”
“The probe is 70% certain there is a larger structure underneath,” Spike said. “If we order now, it can adjust course and impact the planet close to the structure to get a good look. It will keep transmitting until right before the impact. Or we let it keep flying, and not show anypony who didn’t already know that we’re coming.”
“You aren’t going to hit them, are ‘ya?” Applejack asked. “I know our probes are real small, but so’s a bullet.”
“We can’t be positive,” Node said. “But we’ll try to be far enough away to get better information as we enter the atmosphere. The real fight is between the scattering of that gas and the transmitter antenna. The broadcast will be so high power and directed that the object will be able to guess our approach heading with certainty.”
1. Order the intercept [gain much more information, but reveal approach]
2. Flyby instead. [little more will be learned until the Equinox arrives]
3. Aim for the object intentionally. [W͝H̳͎̩̘͕̝͕A͠Ṭ̮͕͞ ̴͎̤̤̼̳͉̫I̸͍͉͉̘̟̤S̤͓ ̥̮̰̖̘͞O͝R͙͎D̡̹̗̣E̲͍̺̮͠R̩͓E̘̦̗̝̗̭D̙͈̩̻ ̻̰̻M̨U̩̱͇͖̩S͔̱̼̟T͎̻̪̬͕̀ B̘̲́ͅE̴̝̩̮̱C̖̠̥̘O̬ͅM̷͍̺͎̖Ḙ̹͓̮ ͕͢D̹̼̹̱͎͙I̟̮S̤̜͡O̳̺̥̰͉̭̭Ṛ̥̙͡ͅD͚̬̮̟̪̼ER̯͚͝]̞̼͖̖̱̯
(Certainty 200 required)
Information is king and there's a good chance they'll know we're coming and from where regardless.
just hit it kill it with fire.
I'm voting to try and keep the approach secret, but who knows what will happen.
Boo. Spiquinox or riot.
So the Signallers almost literally said "We're going to build our own solution to cosmic entropy! With ponies! And blackjack!" Probably best not to think about that one too much.
In all seriousness, knowing what they'll be working with seems worth the cost of revealing themselves, especially with all those personal projects well on their way to completion. There's no guarantee that Proximus C won't see them coming through other means; may as well learn more and know that they know. That state of informational awareness allows for much more effective counterstrategizing. (Admittedly, that cuts both ways, but at least now they can expect getting shot out of the sky. Yay?)
It’s better to know if they look hostile or not coming in. We might be able to deviate our course a bit, but it’s unlikely we’d come in unnoticed if it’s a threat. If it’s a lost pony escape vessel then knowing is best.
I hope AB and Sunset's project is a mechanical body that can use magic, having Sunset as something more than a terminally ill unicorn would be nice.
Speaking of disorder, where the heck was Discord?
Opption 1
Lets go with the intercept. We don't know who it is down there, but eventually popping up out of the blue is a good way to get shot. Might as well let them know we know where they are. They may even be able to send a transmission.
If they do know we're coming, the point is moot. If they do NOT know, why give them any clues? Flyby.
Huh, now this is reminding me of the current Schlock Mercenary storyline.
That's probably good, we want Spike to keep an eye on her.
80%, 60%, 70%, 80%, 80%, that's good progress for half of the trip.
Interesting design.
1, we need the intel sooner rather than later, particularly while we still have our current momentum available to work with if we need to go somewhere else.
Seems to me they might already know the ship is coming, so might as well get info. We're guaranteed some info by a direct probe, but there's only some chance of avoiding detection if we just keep going.
And no, bad hunger. Nothing for you.
I'm going to go with the Probe gaining intel.
The Hunger doesn't sound like anything that would rely on such a structure. So Either this is a Signaler structure or a pony structure. Probably best not to surprise a group that has had to deal with the Hunger. Sounds like a sure fire way to get fired upon.
Let me put my reasoning in another way. Hunger or current pony tech, it's unlikely what's down there won't notice the Equinox as it gets closer. The Equinox is an old ship after-all. But how the Equinox approaches might be a keen indicator of who's in the driver seat. It probably won't help that the Eqhinox's damage might be noticeable with current pony tech. I would expect the only reason the Hunger would use the ship like the Equinox is to get as close as possible to ram the ship at whatever is on that planet.
So sneaking around would probably have a bad reaction, but commanding the probe might gain us intel to either avoid the planet outright or stay the course and also be proof that the Equinox is not being run by a Hunger driven ship.
Option 3 is the hunger coming back isn't it? Fuck it pre-emptive strike!
9757683
If memory serves we sent the probe in the first place because we detected them. It's stupid to assume they haven't detected us back when the tech disparity is this huge. The only secret we can keep is the APPROACH VECTOR, which isn't going to stay secret very long either way. And we're diverting the probe, instead of letting it fly by. No return vector shot will hit us unless it was detected out of the bay (possible but far less likely than entire ship already spotted) and again. We know nothing yet. Information this far out could save us if there's a planetary defense grid, for instance
I don't know, i don't want to damage their ship.
The real question is, how likely are they to have already noticed? As I think the answer is "very", there's no reason not to gain more intel.
Interesting. There's a Blue Wolf Fleet system that's kind of similar to Rarity's idea, called the Prospero Integrated Fleet Defense Shield system (or Prospero Shield). It's designed to protect task forces and fleets by linking their shield generators together to create a large area shield. The problem with this is the larger the area that needs to be protected, the more power the shield needed to be effective, and so it would end up being weaker than what ships could produce individually.
Blue Wolf's engineers however came up with a way around this. Instead of continuously protecting an entire area, the Prospero system would concentrate it's available power at areas under attack This approach was good for projectiles but the problem was energy type weapons moved much faster, giving the system no time react. A way also needed to be found to enable the Prospero to be able to respond quick enough to undetected or unanticipated threats.
So what they came up with was this. At the heart of the Prospero system is a dedicated supercomputer, which is carried by certain types of command ships. These Prospero computers are state of the art, faster-than-light quantum processors dedicated just to operating the shield, in order to be able to calculate and send commands fast enough. When activated, the Prospero networks with all the Blue Wolf ships in the fleet and uses their combined generators to create a low energy area shield around the fleet, which is strong enough to marginally deflect or "bend" a indirect hit from Phaser type beam weapons and detonate any standard warhead. This would take care of any unexpected richochets. The power generated from each ship would be evenly distributed around the fleet using a layer of the shield itself, so each vessel would have the same amount of power for it's shield generators - kind of like a bucket-brigade system.
What then happens is all of the ships feed sensor data to the Prospero, and when an incoming attack is detected, the Prospero calculates precisely what strength of shield is required and for what duration, but also how large an area needs to be reinforced, and also what shape the wall needs to be to best deflect or contain the impact. So a missile attack for example would produce a long triangular "spike" in the outer shield designed to trigger the missile at it's point before it reaches the actual wall and the sides would then catch the blast and debris and deflect it away. A laser however, would produce a different shield geomentry to divert it's path or "catch" the beam over a larger surface area and more effeciently radiate the energy back into space. Once the response is calculated, the Prospero then directly commands the generators on the required ships to create the shield area to counter the threat. The time between detection and shield response phases can be almost instantaneous, depending how far away the threat is and time to impact.
Sounds to me like Rarity's problem might be she's still trying to shield the entire ship at once rather than just the threatened area, even if it's just a few seconds. The power surge from the shield comming on might be overloading the crystals. The one problem with using a Prospero type system to shield a single ship however, is the smaller the protected area, the more concentrated the threats would be and the computer would quickly be overloaded trying to keep up with the conflicting demands from multiple threats. The only type of Blue Wolf warship big enough to be protected effectively by it's own Prospero shield are the two Pendragon class Dreadnaughts, and even then only for a short time. They mostly just use a standard shield envelope.
Rolling for insanity....
....11....
We are probably already discovered from our previous actions. I don't think there is any harm to discovering more by flying the probe in real close.
The hunger is Discord.
Gain the info. Chances are they will find out we're coming before we get there if they don't already know. There's too many variables that could tip our hand. Meanwhile any info we get is something we'll have time to utilize for sure.
Stealth can be very valuable, but given the context here it's just not great odds the stealth will succeed. Plus if they're friendly then there's no reason to hide, right?
...Sooo, gonna change the Title to 'Voyage of the Equispike'?
9758418
Scenario 1: They have detected us. We go in blind and get absolutely wrecked by unknown danger because we didn't use the probe to find it.
Scenario 2: They haven't detected us. We go in blind and get absolutely wrecked by unknown danger because we didn't use the probe to find it.
Scenario 3: They have detected us. They see the probe impact as hostile action but we gain knowledge of their defenses while still having tons of time to react.
Scenario 4: They haven't detected us. They see the probe impact as hostile action and we gain knowledge of their defenses while still having time to react.
Scenario 5: They haven't detected us. The probe impact is neutral. We gain that information and whatever else intel.
Scenario 6: They have detected us. The probe impact is neutral and we gain that information plus whatever else.
Scenario 7 through 9: They have detected us. They have the capability to send an attack back along the vector of the probe. The probe flies by/impacts. They see this as hostile. They send an attack along the flight vector and we have to hope the shields hold. This scenarios is unaffected by probe entering atmo because the flight path is already known.
Scenario 10: They have not detected us. They have the capability to send an attack along the probe's vector. The probe flies by. They see this as hostile. They send an attack along t
e last known trajectory of the probe, which misses because of the course correction to impact near the signal.
The majority of scenarios end better with probe impact than without, and the rest are unchanged regardless of decision. The only failure state is if the impact triggers an immediate attack directly on the Equispike, If the probe alters course, that attack misses if they never detected us in the first place.
I'll take the intel and minimal risk at the same time.
9758634
There's also the added concern how they'll interpret an approach when the Hunger's potential tactics are thought of by the ones working whatever is on this planet.
From the last Hunger beast they fought, They can manipulate pretty advanced tech from how it turned a huge Signaler mech swarm against them. Bough with how it engaged them itself, it seems to prefer stalker it's prey while depending on it's natural gifts when it can. If I was them, I'd be way more suspicious of a ship stalking they colony, then one using a Probe to try to figure out what they are. The Hunger is more likely to use the stealth tactic or use the Probe to get in a first strike. While the Probe trying to get more detailed scan without hurting whatever it is on the planet is more likely something not effected by the Hunger.
Node claims Proximus C was a laboratory. Assuming it's still functional at all, their approach should definitely have been noticed by now, fly-by or not. Assuming there's nothing watching, directing the probe at this point shouldn't have any more significance of discovery than previous. It seems rather unlikely that sensors that missed the approach of the probe will suddenly note the probe changing direction. You're either sufficiently sophisticated to see since the original approach, or not, and if you're not, the sophistication is likely not enough to backtrack the path to the original vector (and thus the ship), even if the probe is directing high-energy transmissions back in the correct direction. The small benefits of maintaining the fly-by aren't worth it.
Seems Node might be trying to make a magic interface? Others seem to think Sunset and Applebloom are, but we doubt that.
I vote intercept. If they're friendly, they won't care if we're coming. And if they're hostile, odds are they have the tech to know we're coming anyway.
At this stage of the movie production the sound design team silences all ambiance and mr.terantino runs his hands together with manic glee. Welcome to the raid boss boys there is no possible way that thing g doesn't know were coming we need to keep in my sunset told us to go to that butt she doesn't know what that is. Let's not garner its attention.
The other replies have convinced me. Especially 9757692 and 9757777 . Let's not go in blind to the thing that may be 1) scared and jumpy or 2) openly hostile.
I like that name.
But does he? I'm curious.
9757692
Me:
derpicdn.net/img/view/2019/4/21/2018723.gif
Source.
I voted to let the steer the probe into the atmosphere, for the same reasons 9759258 and some others had already stated.
That sounds like the Insight vision Twilight had.